


Good Vibrations

by agentverbivore (verbivore8642)



Series: Inhuman!Fitz AU [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action, Affection, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Best Friends, Car Sex, Crack, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Inhuman AU, Inhumans (Marvel), Laughter During Sex, Magic Fingers, Masturbation, Missions Gone Wrong, Oral Sex, POV Leo Fitz, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Semi-Public Sex, Sequel, Sex in a Car, Sexual Content, Sexual Fantasy, Smut, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-07 12:43:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11623782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verbivore8642/pseuds/agentverbivore
Summary: Fitz needed a lot of time to adjust to having Inhuman powers, but at long last, he's settled into his new life at SHIELD - and his new life with Jemma.Despite having known his best friend for a decade, she still manages to surprise him. This time, she brings up something from their past, and a mission doesn't quite go as planned.A mini-sequel toThe Storm Inside.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EclecticMuse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EclecticMuse/gifts).



> written for the one and only [eclecticmuses](http://archiveofourown.org/users/EclecticMuse/pseuds/EclecticMuse) on her birthday. brain twin and saltmate of mine, you're my favorite thing to have come out of being a part of this fandom. <3 
> 
> as you can see, this got a little bit away from me, so there's more to come, but have no fear - your prompt for this particular 'verse, "Jemma shows Fitz another one of her sex dreams," happens in this very first chapter. :-)
> 
> if you're just stumbling upon this fic, you might want to check out the main fic, [The Storm Inside](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5039197/chapters/11585344), first to better understand the premise, but it isn't entirely necessary. in that season 2 AU, Fitz ends up with powers instead (and Jemma is saved from the monolith after only about 8 hours).
> 
> although this fic is mostly smut, the middle chapter will be completely sexless. 
> 
> timeline-wise, this takes place around 3x01 in canon.

Leo Fitz was mind-numbingly bored. 

This was, truthfully, in strict contrast to the way he felt most of the time these days, which was deeply content. The science was interesting, his girlfriend was magnificent, and he worked with the greatest group of people in any pseudo-secret spy agency the world over. But if he had to hear another briefing about the Secret Warriors, he was going to take somebody’s head off.

Well, probably not literally, but he _had_ been fiddling with the laser pointer in his pocket for the past two minutes and wondering what would happen if he pointed it straight at Coulson’s forehead. Skye – who stood beside Coulson while she waited for the director to finish speaking – would probably laugh, but he somehow doubted anyone else would. Further down the table, Jemma was watching their boss speak with rapt attention. Somehow, he suspected that he’d be made to pay by his girlfriend if he interrupted the briefing, and that idea he found even less appealing than the meeting itself.

Sighing, Fitz sunk a little lower into his high-backed, conference room chair. Unfortunately, there was no real way for him to be excused from these briefings, and if he were being honest with himself, there was no logical reason that they needled at him. He was principal tech support for all the associated Secret Warriors’ gear, as well as being a non-field ops member of the team himself. Although he felt great pity for all the Inhumans whose innocent eating of fish oil pills had thrown them into a life they had never expected or wanted, the challenge of technologically attending to all of their needs was more exciting and interesting than he cared to admit to nearly anyone other than Jemma. The work meant that the Science Division was always running at full speed, and he thought they were doing an excellent job of keeping pace with the constant slew of new variables.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he slid it out to glance at the lock screen, using the agent next to him to hide it from the authority figures at the front.

 _Jemma:  
_ _Missed you this morning._

A smile teased at the corner of his mouth, and he glanced over at her again. She was the perfect picture of paying attention, one hand taking careful notes on lined pages. The phone must be concealed in her lap somewhere.

 _Reply: Sorry, late to breakfast with Andrew. Make it up to you later?_  

The other reason why Fitz was feeling a bit out of sorts today was that he had met with the psychiatrist as part of his ongoing status on SHIELD’s new-and-improved version of the Index. He and Andrew were on quite good terms now, but Fitz still bristled at the powers-that-be needing to keep checks on his mental health. When he’d complained to Jemma about the forthcoming meeting as they had readied themselves for bed the night before, he’d joked that it was his “six-month are-you-a-monster-yet check-up.” She hadn’t found it as funny as he had.

 _Jemma:  
_ _You’d better._

_Reply: Ideas for how?_

_Jemma:  
_ _Of course._

_Reply: Care to share?_

_Jemma:  
_ _You’ll know. <3 _

His thumb hovered over the digital keyboard, itching to tap out a number of things varying from the soppy to the obscene but unable to decide on one.

“Wheels up in one hour. That’s it!” Coulson dropped his file folder on the table, signaling the end of the meeting and prompting all the attendant agents to stand up en masse.

Distracted from his reply, Fitz looked up to see Jemma already out of her seat and chatting with Coulson and Skye at the front of the room. An idea popped into his head, and he grinned, slipping the phone back into his pocket.

As he pushed himself up and grabbed his work tablet, he sent a hand-shaped collection of air molecules forward to collide sharply with Jemma’s bum. She hopped forward, whipping her head around to see no one within a good fifteen feet of her behind. At last, though, her eyes landed on her boyfriend where he was standing across the room. Fitz gave her a smirk and a half-wave, and then turned towards the door so he could get started on mission prep. He caught a glimpse of her glaring at him before he went, and his smile only grew. 

There were few things in Fitz’s day-to-day life that he enjoyed more than riling Jemma up. If he was going to have to sit through interminable Secret Warriors meetings, at least he had her inevitable response to look forward to once they returned to the base.

 

\------

 

Snuggling down in his coat, Fitz slouched on the second row SUV seat and glanced at the monitoring equipment he had just finished setting up.

Outside of the car, a sleepy suburb of Bucharest went about its mid-afternoon business, not knowing or caring that a SHIELD contingent was heading towards two of its inhabitants. Having successfully touched down outside of the city, the field team had split into three groups to drive into the town. Zephyr One’s landing field was too far out for Fitz to conduct technical operations from its main console, so he had needed to accompany them, which was not their standard procedure on these missions. Jemma was in charge of medical care, although she was also working with Fitz on making sure the operation ran smoothly on the back-end. They were both wearing tactical gear, but the likeliness was that they wouldn’t need it. 

“There,” Jemma said, finishing her own adjustments and leaning back next to Fitz. “Everything’s online, and set to alert us if anything changes.”

He glanced at his watch. “T minus sixty-five minutes until they make contact with the first Inhuman.” 

Humming in agreement, Jemma slipped her hand into his and squeezed, drawing his gaze to her face. For a moment, he was quite glad that the other agents were all busy walking the grid for security weaknesses, meaning that the two of them had some alone time on their hands.

“How did it go this morning?” she asked quietly, and he exhaled.

“Fine. Still not unhinged.”

“ _Fitz_ –”

“No, really,” he said, half-gesturing with the hand she had in hers, “it was fine. We talked mostly about why I’m not joining the ops team.”

Jemma’s lips pursed in thought. “May I ask...?”

“You know already,” he said, voice sharper than he’d intended, and he winced, threading their fingers together. “I love being an engineer. Figuring out what makes things tick – that’s what makes me happy. Not beating people up, or whatever.” Fitz paused, and then shifted around slightly so that he could see her better. “Working with you makes me happier than anything.”

A smile flashed across her face, and she ducked her head. “Me too.” Comfortable silence fell between them for a few minutes, with her absently smoothing her right hand along the contours of his. “I really did miss you this morning. I can’t remember the last time I woke up and you weren’t there.” 

“Two months ago, when you were stuck here taking care of that Inhuman family and I had to go with Skye to Antigua.”

Jemma rolled her eyes. “Fitz. I just meant that I... didn’t care for it.”

Studying her face, he noted that she still wasn’t meeting his gaze, which meant that she was more bothered than she let on. They had only been romantically together for just under six months, but he knew this response from years of being her best friend. He frowned and thought carefully before answering.

“I’m sorry. Should I’ve woken you?” Normally, leaving the other person asleep was the considerate thing to do, but perhaps Jemma disagreed. In truth, he had been tempted to kiss her before he’d left, but had resisted the urge.

“No, it’s not your fault,” she replied quickly. “I’m just glad we have some time together now. I wasn’t sure if they would need me on this mission, but –”

“With more’n one potential Inhuman in play, better to have the foremost expert on Inhuman biology on board.” Fitz gave her a fond smile, and reached over to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 

Jemma chuckled as she curled her legs beneath her on the car seat. “This isn’t a difficult op, just a bit long.” 

“Fortunately, we have each other to keep us entertained.” He grinned, waiting for her to roll her eyes at his cheesiness, but instead she just scooted a little closer in.

“Indeed,” she murmured, nudging at his nose in an Eskimo kiss before pressing their lips together. “You know,” she whispered against his mouth, reaching up to frame his face with her hands, “I had to make a special request to come on this one.”

If he hadn’t been distracted by the way she was feathering her lips up his jaw, Fitz would have given her a confused look. “You did?” 

“Although I almost changed my mind,” she said, slipping her leg over the other side of his lap so she was straddling him. “I cannot _believe_ you slapped my arse in public.” 

Fitz let out a little snort of laughter, resting his hands on her upper thighs. “Technically, the air slapped your arse in public.” When she leaned back to glare at him, he just gave her a little shrug.

“Ugh, _Fitz_. You really don’t deserve a reward, but the opportunity is too good to pass up.” 

“Opportunity?” Fitz was thoroughly confused by now, but before he could get another word out, Jemma reached around him to tug at the switch on the side of their car seat, sending them both backwards flat against the third row of the SUV. They both let out quiet “oofs,” and his hands automatically came up around her waist as if to catch her. “What the _hell_ , Jemma?!” 

Hair falling around her face, she blinked down at him. “You’re going to fuck me in this car.”

With that, she climbed over him and set about flattening the back row of seats. He took a few seconds to sit up again, unsure what part of that to which he should react first. It didn’t help that her tone of voice and the semi-order nature of it already had his blood flowing south, and, damn it, Fitz didn’t know why he had such a weakness for bossy Jemma but it certainly hadn’t lessened the longer they’d been together. Her swearing like that was also atypical, and he was reluctant to admit that he found it unbearably hot. If she had said it to turn him on, it had certainly worked.

“The what now?” he finally managed to get out, folding forward the seat he’d been on so that it lay properly flat.

Halting briefly in her hunt for the back seats’ release lever, she turned to look at him. “Remember how I said there was one dream left, but that we couldn’t do it at the base?” 

Fitz’s mouth dropped open into an “o.” The last time they had talked about Jemma’s list of sex dreams had been quite a while ago, and he had, in fact, not remembered.

Months ago, when the two of them had been exiled to Fury’s cabin in the woods while Fitz tried to understand his new Inhuman powers, Jemma had confessed to having had numerous and inventive sex dreams about the two of them. As they had stumbled towards consummating their romantic relationship, she had promised to eventually show him every one of her sex dreams. This had been, in a lot of ways, like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae for Fitz – a sweet bonus to actually getting to explore being with Jemma, even if it hadn’t been wholly necessary.

Once they had returned to the base and settled into establishing a more traditional romantic relationship – one that didn’t involve running from people who were trying to kill Fitz – they had managed to get through an impressive number of Jemma’s fantasies. Considering the fact that their sex life continued to be rather inventive on the best of days thanks to his powers, he had forgotten that they apparently had one scenario left on the list. Since the two of them never lacked for creative ways to spend their private time – be it sex or _Doctor Who_ marathons – her dreams had rather slipped his mind.

He swallowed, watching as she returned to poking her fingers into the grooves of the seat. “And in this one....”

“Do you remember Zlota?”

Wrinkling his nose, he watched her clamber over the back of the seat for an apparently elusive lever. “Yeah, our second mission on the Bus.” 

“Right, so, the dream was a version of that, but without the rest of the team.” Finished with flattening the back seats, she crawled towards him so she could reach the button that raised the black plastic divider between the driver’s seat and the back. “The SUV isn’t exactly the same, but I’d wager that it will be more comfortable than the floor of the Short Bus.”

“What were we... wait, hang on,” Fitz said, interrupting himself and briefly pinching his nose between his two forefingers. “We can’t just –”

“The sensors are set to alert us, like you said, everyone else is busy scouting, and SHIELD SUVs are built to be sound-resistant.” Pushing herself onto her knees, she studied him for a few seconds, nibbling at her bottom lip. “I would never want to do anything you weren’t comfortable with, Fitz, you know that. But I rather think our lab excursion was more risky than this.”

She was probably right about that. It had taken them nearly two months of planning and a significant amount of cracking into the base’s surveillance infrastructure and security protocols to ensure themselves genuine privacy for an hour of extremely hot lab sex. Unsurprisingly, they both considered the night worth it in the end, but sometimes Fitz still worried that somehow they’d get caught out for it however many months down the line. A shielded SUV in an empty back alleyway was vastly more private. Sort of. 

“So,” Jemma continued, drawing his attention back to her and away from reminiscing about what she had looked like naked, sweaty, and whimpering his name in her lab coat. “Fitz. Do you want to fuck me in this car, or not?”

He cleared his throat, dimly noting that he was now decidedly hard, straining against the tight material of his tactical gear trousers. Although he’d always been a bit uncomfortable with telling her exactly what he wanted when they were in bed, he was trying to get better at it – especially with her encouragement. When he spoke again, then, he was mildly surprised by how easily he found his next words: “I want to fuck you in this car. Now.”

A sly grin spread across her face, and she leaned forward to give him a heated kiss. “Good,” she said, “Then lie down, and trousers off.”

Even though collapsing [the back row of seats into the floor](http://www.allpar.com/photos/dodge/durango/2014/cargo-bay.jpg) had made for a more or less flat plane for Fitz to lie on, it wasn’t exactly roomy. Fortunately, they were both short enough that they could move around each other. In order for him to lie on the floor, his legs had to be crooked awkwardly against the trunk door. By the time he had tossed away his Kevlar vest and unzipped his trousers, Jemma was just managing to get her own trousers pulled down and off entirely. As she crawled back up onto her knees to drop her clothes onto the middle dual seat they’d left up, now only dressed in her form-fitting black shirt, Fitz couldn’t help but ogle his girlfriend a little. He had fantasized about her being in her tactical gear during sex more than once since they’d gotten together, so it seemed they both were about to get exactly what they wanted.

Busily admiring her bare bum, it took him a few seconds to realize exactly how close it was to his head. A mischievous thought popped into his head, and before Jemma turn back around, he lifted her left leg up and spread her over his face. She made a small squeak of surprise, grabbing at the window frame and seatback for purchase, but it didn’t take long for him to open her properly and slide his mouth over her clit. With a small gasp, she froze, processing the feeling of him massaging her sensitive skin with his lips and tongue. 

“Oh _Fitz_ ,” she whimpered, and he hummed as he felt her hips give a sinuous little buck back against his mouth. At the vibrations from his sound, she moaned, knees slipping even further apart on either side of his ears.

Fitz ran his hands up the backs of her legs to her bare ass, gripping the pert flesh, kneading just enough to feel her shiver at the added sensation. Licking briefly down to her entrance, he reveled in the familiar taste of her, in knowing how wet he was making her, in the taut tremble of her limbs. At last, having wound her up, he returned his mouth to her clit and began to suck at the sensitive nub. Jemma let out his name in a strangled gasp, but before she could spiral out, he used his powers to send out two curling tendrils of vibrations – one to tease at her nipples beneath the tight black shirt, and the other up inside her to stimulate her G-spot. When they had first begun experimenting with each other in bed, he hadn’t been able to control his powers consistently when he was quite this wound up. Fortunately for them both, that had long since ceased to be a problem.

Her hips bucked instinctively forward as the exact pressure and frequency she liked curled up inside her, and she let out a throaty groan. One hand reached down to grip his hair as she began to ride his mouth, moaning and panting and quite literally being every one of Fitz’s own sex dreams come true. His cock was straining painfully against one side of his partially undone trousers now, and if he weren’t so intent on watching Jemma spiral over the edge from this angle, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to wait. He could see up the length of her body to where she had her eyes closed in pleasure, tongue darting out to slick over her lips.

“I’m gonna come,” she whimpered, “oh Fitz yes, Fitz _yes_ – I’m – I’m gonna – I’m gonna....”

Humming, Fitz rubbed his tongue faster against her and spread out the bulb of his powers’ vibration inside her so that it filled her innermost passage, reaching even the farthest corners that his own cock couldn’t. Consumed by the feel of his mouth, of his powers, of his hands, Jemma burst over the edge of her orgasm with a hoarse shout, body spinning out as she tried to keep up with every point of stimulation. With a few last shivers, she sagged forward against the wall of the SUV, and he let his head drop back against the scratchy grey backing of the seats.

“Again,” she breathed as Fitz scooted out from beneath her. Because the ceiling was so low, she wasn’t quite able to loll her head back to look at him, but she turned enough to watch him shove his boxers and trousers down around his knees. “Make me come again.”

“Greedy,” he murmured, a wry grin flashing across his face as he wiped his mouth on his black sleeve. Jemma reached for him and he obliged, hugging her sideways and slanting her lips open for a long, deep kiss. “Condoms, love.”

“IUD,” she reminded him, and he gave his head a brief shake. 

“Right, yeah, sorry. Forgot.” He leaned in for another kiss, enjoying the feeling of her relaxing in his arms.

Jemma had only gotten the IUD a couple weeks prior, her schedule having finally allowed the time for it. Something warm had swelled in his chest when she’d brought up the option with him, shyly pointing out that if they were together for the long haul, this was a more cost-effective form of birth control. As much as Fitz knew her feelings for him well enough now, he still reveled in any demonstration that she was as committed as he. For his part, he’d long since begun debating with himself how soon would be too soon to bring up marriage, never mind their current form of birth control. They weren’t quite at the point of proposals yet, both of them still working through their own issues together or with Andrew, but Fitz _wanted_ to be there. His heart certainly was.

Nuzzling below her chin, he ghosted kisses up along her cheek. “This is your fantasy. How d’you want...?”

With a satisfied sigh, Jemma shifted them around so that he was pressed against her back, his erection nestled between her legs. “Might be more comfortable,” she breathed, holding onto the seat in front of her as she tilted her head to see him, “than trying to squeeze onto the floor. The dream was, ah, on the floor.”

He chuckled, pressing himself flush against her. “As you wish,” he murmured, reaching down to encourage her to spread her legs apart and then guide himself to her entrance. With a shallow grunt, he thrust forward, burying himself inside her in one strong movement. “Oh yeah,” Fitz breathed roughly against her shoulder, curling his hands around her waist, “that’s _it_ , baby girl.” 

Her inner walls were still fluttering in aftershocks from her climax, but his whole brain was focused on the feeling of sensitive skin rubbing tightly against sensitive skin. Having sex without a condom still took his breath away every time, that most intimate sensation of her every heated shiver and flex around his cock taking him that much closer to the brink. She had said it felt better to her, too, for them to not have anything between them, and he thought of that again as she panted in his arms. 

“Fitz,” she moaned, grinding back against him with a sinuous little twitch of her hips.

“Was this what it was like?” he rumbled against her ear, pulling out and then driving forward again to begin a rhythm of strong, deep strokes. “In your dream?”

“No,” Jemma gasped, shamelessly arching her back so that the head of his cock rubbed against her G-spot on every thrust. “Oh God, this is – so much b-better! _Ahh_ – yes!” 

Groaning, Fitz buried his face in the crook of her neck and shoulder, focusing on the sinuous rhythm of their hips, on the feeling of her wrapped in his arms, on the tight slide of his cock in and out of her slick passage. He fought to keep his pace steady, to let them both build to the precipice together, but she kept clenching around him and whimpering his name, and it was hard to remember why he was waiting.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something in the reflection of the plastic divider to the front of the SUV. When he tilted his head, in it he could see the colorless but distinct reflections of their faces, shifting rhythmically as he thrust inside her hard and fast. Jemma’s face was a mask of ecstasy, eyes closed and lips parted as she let out her erotic little moans and gasps. Her fingers griped the seat in front of them so hard that her knuckles were nearly bloodless. Fitz nearly came at the sight, and forced himself to hold out just long enough to for him to heed her command.

Grabbing tightly onto her hips, he increased the strength of his strokes at the same time that he sent an admittedly tenuous tendril of air to vibrate around her clit. Fortunately, it was more than enough, and with a high cry Jemma came a second time, inner walls fluttering around his cock and her hips bucking frantically in his grasp. Unable to wait, Fitz hilted roughly inside her as he spun out into his own climax, setting his teeth into her fabric-clad shoulder as he thrust upwards once, twice more.

They panted harshly together as they both faded into the sweaty, exhausted aftermath, with Fitz all but collapsing against Jemma where she leaned over the seatback.

“Youremydreams,” he mumbled into her ponytail, and then frowned at himself. Still floating on a sex-fueled high, he had dimly thought that he should say something complimentary but not cliché, and he was now pretty sure that he’d bungled it. “Or something.”

Without speaking, she tilted forward so that he slipped out of her, and then turned so that she could cradle his face in her hands. “You are,” she whispered breathlessly, nudging their noses together, “quite _literally_ all my dreams come true.” Her honey brown gaze was clear and open as she watched him, one thumb brushing against his stubble, and he sucked in a breath.

“How d’you do that?” he said, dropping his eyes briefly. “Say these things like, um, we’re in a movie, or something, but it sounds so... so....”

“True?” she offered with a smile.

“Not cheesy,” he finished, earning him an eye-roll and a light whack against his shoulder.

“It’s not cheesy when it’s true,” she retorted primly.

Before she could shuffle away to get her clothes, Fitz wrapped her hand in his. “I love you,” he said simply, watching as a bright smile flashed across her face.

“I love you, too.” Jemma leaned in for a soft kiss, chuckling against mouth. “Especially when you indulge my, ah, more _interesting_ fantasies.”

Fitz laughed loudly at that, taking the box of tissues she tugged out of one of the doors. “I cannot imagine ever saying no to you when you ask to do something like that.”

As she quickly cleaned herself up, she studied him out of the corner of her eye. “But you would, wouldn’t you? If you didn’t – you’d tell me?” 

He nodded and grabbed for his own tissues before pecking a kiss to her cheek. “Yeah, promise.” 

Although getting re-dressed in their form-fitting tactical gear bottoms was a bit cramped in the back of the SUV, they both managed with only a minor bit of falling over. (Jemma claimed that Fitz had sent her off-balance back onto her bum, but he just waggled his eyebrows, made a sly joke about turning her world upside down, and then dodged another pointed whack that she aimed at his bum.)

Fortunately, the machines set up in the middle seat had continued to work without needing any attention during Fitz and Jemma’s clandestine rendezvous, successfully tracking all of the agents during their recon and making sure that nothing out of the ordinary cropped up. Just as they finished dressing, the clock ticked over into when the mission was officially supposed to begin, and they raised the volume to allow comms chatter to fill the SUV. The two of them made themselves comfortable at their respective workstations, having hidden their just-had-sex appearances to the greatest degree possible. (This included a bit of Fitz teasing Jemma about her sex-proof ponytail, and a bit more of her grumbling about how his curls were more invincible than Skye.) While he settled himself in front of his screens, she finished retying her ponytail.

Just as Fitz was giving thought to rummaging around for the snack bag, he saw Mack’s status dot blip out of existence for the merest second. It reappeared just as quickly, but he leaned forward with a frown. 

“Mack,” he said, properly affixing his own earpiece. “All clear?”

Static crinkled over the line. Jemma glanced worriedly at Fitz and then leaned over to study his screen. 

“Skye,” Jemma said, pressing one finger against her comms earpiece. “Do you have eyes on Mack?”

Silence greeted them again, and dread sliced through Fitz’s stomach.

“Negative,” crackled Skye’s voice at last, and Fitz remembered to breathe. “Code magenta, Fitz, we need you out here. Davis is on his way back for Jemma.”

Swearing, Fitz scrambled over his gear to yank the car door open.

“Magenta,” Jemma said, crawling out after him. “What –” 

“They need my powers,” he said, voice tight as he made sure his bulletproof vest was secure. “Can you hand me...?” 

Before he could gesture to a case tucked beneath the driver’s seat, Jemma was already halfway through pulling it towards herself. With two quick snaps, she opened the aluminum case to reveal the latest version of Fitz’s combat gloves. The vibranium-steel alloy that coated their tightly fitted plates helped to absorb and channel his powers, mitigating the damage he still suffered from sustained use. A few innocuous vibrations of air molecules in the bedroom or the laboratory didn’t require them, but if he was being called in on a field mission, he would need the gloves.

With nimble hands, she helped to make sure that they fit snugly over his tactical shirt’s long sleeves. “Did Skye come up with ‘code magenta’?” she asked, lips ticking up in amusement.

Fitz let out a huff. “She’s team captain, isn’t she? At least it’s better than the ones I vetoed.” 

Footsteps echoed from the other end of the alley, and he stepped quickly in front of Jemma, right hand held outstretched and powers humming eagerly beneath his skin, just waiting to be released. Around the corner jogged Agent Davis, and Fitz could feel Jemma sigh in relief in unison with him. 

“Here to relieve you, sir,” Davis said, nodding in Jemma’s direction as Fitz turned back to the car.

“Right, thanks.” Fitz grabbed an ICER from the weapons case in between the two front seats. The gun was equipped with bullets designed especially for Inhuman biology, to the best that Jemma could adjust it without being able to account for each person’s unique powers. Fitting the ICER into the back of his trousers and grabbing for his tablet, he leaned over to give her a quick kiss. 

“Be careful,” he said quietly, and then turned to jog in the direction from which Davis had just come.

“Back at you,” she called, and Fitz smiled, glancing over his shoulder at her as he did. 

Even if using his powers in the field was not his preferred duty, at least he could look forward to her fussing over him when he completed the mission. Although Jemma knew as well as he did that he could handle his own powers nowadays, she liked examining him after each prolonged usage to make sure he was okay. Besides, Fitz thought wryly as he glanced down at the directions on his tablet, if his girlfriend wanted to get a little handsy with him again later, he certainly wasn’t going to complain.


	2. Chapter 2

Abandoned buildings were not Fitz’s favorite place to spend his time.

The second Inhuman of the day’s mission was somewhere in a commercial building that was technically only sort of abandoned, in that SHIELD had just cleared the scattered offices of its few inhabitants. But as he stalked slowly down the hall, one gloved hand held in front of him and the other holding his tablet, he thought that the feeling was just about the same. A breeze caused by open windows wafted through the empty halls, and he would swear that a light around the far corner only blinked when he turned away.

Skye’s little green dot blinked cheerfully at him from the tablet screen, theoretically just beyond the doorway next to which he’d just paused. With a deep breath, Fitz did a final check of the dim, grey hallway before ducking inside.

Made of unadorned concrete, the empty room stretched out on either side of the door to the length of the hall itself. In the middle of the room stood Skye, the opposite seamless and unblemished wall the subject of her intense focus. When she heard him stride inside, however, she turned and gave him a wide smile.

“Hey there, Quakey!” Her ponytail swished from side-to-side, brushing against the thin material of her black sports shirt. Unlike everyone else on the mission, she was not wearing tactical gear, instead preferring to wear clothes that did not impede her movement.

Stepping alongside her, Fitz scowled. “I told you not to call me that.”

“Tremors?” she offered instead, and his expression just darkened.

“Mack’s allowed, _you_ are not.”

“Doc Quaken?”

“Oh, _c’mon_ –” 

“If you’re on a field mission with us, Fitz, you need a code name! Like Spock!” Skye’s eyes shone with mirth, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to glower back at her. 

“Spock isn’t a code name.”

“But it _could_ be.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I still think the Quakester has a nice ring to it –”

“ _Skye_!”

Throwing out her hands to the side, she let out an exaggerated groan. “You are the _least_ supportive secret warrior I’ve ever had!” 

“Says the woman who was making eyes at a concrete wall.”

“I wasn’t _making eyes_ at it,” she retorted, crossing her arms, “I was trying to figure out if it’s load bearing.”

Fitz raised his eyebrows and gestured at the empty room. “Where’s everyone else? What’s going on?”

Skye inhaled quickly, shoulders straightening in a way that gave him the impression she was shifting from annoying younger sister into SHIELD agent. “We’ve got the first Inhuman in your cell, peacefully knocked out, no problems. Came willingly. When we went to find the second one, we had trouble figuring out where he was. I think there must be some part of the building that wasn’t on SHIELD’s schematics. Mack disappeared, said he’d found him, and then his comms shut off. We haven’t heard anything from him in fifteen minutes. Everyone else is off looking for other ways in, but so far, no dice.” 

Mouth twisting to the side, Fitz glanced at his tablet. Mack’s vitals continued to blink normally, seemingly not far past the wall in front of which he and Skye now stood.

“At least he’s alive.”

“Yeah, but we need to get him out.” Skye’s bangs flitted upwards as she let out a puff of air. “Can you quake us through?” 

Fitz frowned at the large swath of concrete in front of them. “I dunno. I mean, we don’t _know_ if this is a load-bearing wall, yeah?” 

“SHIELD’s schematics didn’t include that particular bit of info.” 

“Helpful,” he muttered drily. “Thing is, even if I could figure out the right frequency to vibrate apart the concrete, I’m not sure I could stop all of the rest of the walls from picking up that vibration, d’you know what I mean? Once I get it going –”

“No telling when it’d stop.”

“Could bring the whole building down on top of us, and everyone else.”

Skye sighed. “Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that. Looks like we’ve only got one option.” Backing up a few feet, she crouched down into something resembling a runner’s start. “You’ve gotta cannon-ball me.”

Fitz stared back at her. “You want me to what?” 

“Cannon-ball me.” She motioned throwing something at the wall. “You know, through the wall.”

“You’re joking.”

“I never joke, Fitz.”

“This is a terrible plan.” 

“It’s our only plan.”

“If we went back to the SUV or Zephyr One –”

“We don’t have time –”

“We could get the Mouse Hole –” 

“For you to be a chicken shit!”

Fitz halted, mouth open, and narrowed his eyes. “I’m not a chicken shit.” 

“Then cannon-ball me, biatch.” When he just shifted his eyes uneasily from her back to the wall, she sighed. “I’m unbreakable, remember? Perfect Inhuman cannon-ball, standing right here.” 

For a few seconds, he was literally speechless, dimly thinking that things like this were exactly why he’d refused Skye’s repeated requests for him to join her field ops team. “You’re not even wearing a helmet!” 

“My skull is stronger than ten helmets!” Hopping a little on the balls of her feet, she widened her eyes in her best impression of an adorable if annoying brown-eyed puppy. “Cannon-ball me, Fitz? Pleaaaase?”

“No.” 

“Fitz!”

“Skye –”

“Cannon-ball me!”

“No!”

“ _Do it!_ ”

“UGH,” Fitz groaned, throwing his hands in the air. “Fine!” 

Giving him a shit-eating grin, Skye sunk back to the concrete floor. “ _Sweet_.”

“Just,” he bit out, raising his hands in front of himself, “hold on a sec.” If they had more time or could actually get in touch with Mack, he’d insist on going to get proper supplies to break through a concrete wall. A spare Mouse Hole was sitting directly next to his laptop in the SUV, in fact, but their friend had been out of contact for too long already. 

Fitz took a moment to center himself, breathing deeply and forcing aside his worry that he was about to send one of his best friends in the world through a solid concrete wall. Then he reached out with his powers, probing gently at the frequencies of everything he could detect within the room’s borders. With a wince, he found the distinct shape of thick steel supports at either end of the wall. Whatever the adjacent room was, it seemed designed to be at an integral structural part of the building. Had he tried to quake it apart, rather than carefully sensing with the intention not to disturb, there was a very high chance that it would have gone south in seconds. 

After about a minute, he shifted over two feet to the left of where Skye was awaiting his conclusion. “This’ll be our best shot,” he said, pointing in front of himself. “It’s about equidistant between two support beams, should contain the damage to concrete and rebar, and avoid destabilizing the building.” 

As she nodded and slid over so she was in the same position but where he’d directed her, Fitz realized that she was mutter-humming under her breath. “[ _All I wanted was to breaaaak your walls_](https://youtu.be/9SkACYalluA?t=435)....”

He dropped his hands. “Are you _singing_ right now?!” 

Skye twisted around to give him a look that suggested he was neither the possessor of a PhD, nor the head of SHIELD’s engineering department. “Please tell me you know that song.” 

“What song?”

She sighed. “Sometimes I don’t know how you two survived so long without me.”

“Peacefully.” He gestured towards the wall. “C’mon, focus.”

“Consider Miley channeled, I’m ready.” When he just gave her a dry look, she rolled her eyes. “On your count.”

Taking in a low breath, Fitz settled his feet firmly on the floor and raised his hands, right one held forward and the left closer to his chest for balance. For a few seconds, he let the vibrations of every object in the room wash over him, from the tinny metal buttons on his tactical gear to the deep, vibrant hum that made up his friend’s skin, muscles, and bones beneath. Then he held his hands about a foot apart from each other, fingers curved as if he were holding an invisible ball, and began rapidly vibrating the air molecules between them. He could feel the atoms snapping back and forth together faster and faster, building up potential energy even while his powers sublimated the heat that would have been otherwise generated through the laws of physics.

“Three,” he said through gritted teeth, and Skye curled inwards as far as she could go. “Two.” She wrapped her arms over her head, tucking her chin into her chest. “One.”

Letting out a loud shout, Fitz shot the mass of air out to propel his friend forward, her body plowing through the cement wall with a building-shaking crash. Chunks of wall and dust sprayed behind Skye and he flinched, instinctively covering his face to shield himself.

After a few seconds, he lifted his head to squint through the debris. A large, jagged hole now stood in the middle of the wall, the right-hand edge of which just barely grazed the edge of an important-looking support beam. 

Up popped Skye on the other side of the wall, busily brushing grey dust off her black combat outfit. Specks of concrete tumbled out of her ponytail. “That was fun,” she said, turning to assess the room that they’d just literally broken into. “We should make that a weekly thing, Fitzy.”

“Over my dead body,” he grumbled, and stepped forward to peer through the hole. “Mack? Are you in there?”

A large figure in dusty clothes shoved past Skye as he clambered through the hole, sending her roughly to the ground, and then sprinted past Fitz and into the hallway. 

“We have a runner!” Mack bellowed from somewhere inside the room. Pushing herself up, Skye vaulted over the bottom of the hole she’d made and shot after the Inhuman in hot pursuit.

“All agents man the exits,” Fitz said, quickly tapping on his tablet to open his comms microphone to the general SHIELD field frequency. “Second target is on the loose. Powers unknown.” 

With a somewhat labored grunt, Fitz heaved himself over the edge of concrete. The room into which they’d thrown Skye seemed to be a hidey-hole of sorts, with two dingy cots and a now-shattered lamp. Canned food rolled around the floor as Mack pushed himself to his feet, groaning as he went.

“Mack,” Skye shouted into her microphone, and Fitz winced at the volume. “Any hint to his powers?” 

“Dunno how to describe it,” Mack replied, waving Fitz off as he pointed to a seeping wound that had cut through the back of Mack’s Kevlar. 

“So it’s not super speed.” She was breathing heavily, tone somehow dry even as she sped after their target, fast enough for air to be whipping noisily past the microphone. 

“He can change the state of something,” Mack continued, frowning. “Solid wall becomes gas. Kinda like opening a portal.”

Fitz blanched. The last time he’d seen something change from a solid to a different state – had done it himself, in fact – Jemma had nearly been lost to another planet.

“Wouldn’t mind back-up!” Skye called, and Fitz pulled his tablet out of its back holster.

Her little green dot was speeding away from the building in the exact direction that Fitz had left Jemma and Davis. 

He swore, stepping immediately towards the exit, freezing, and then whipping around with a hand held outstretched to Mack. His friend just waved him away, limping after him towards the hole.

“Go, I’m coming.”

Fitz nodded, climbed back out of the hidden room, and jogged out into the hallway. “Agent Piper,” he barked into his comms.

“Roger, Agent Fitz.” 

“Return to the fifth floor of the target building to help Agent Mackenzie.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

With that sorted, Fitz began running through the building and down the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him. Once he was outside again, he glanced at the tablet as he moved, noting how far ahead of him Skye was. He frowned, slowing, and then groaned as he realized the only way he could possibly catch up to her now.

Stuffing the tablet back into its pocket, he took a deep breath and then shot two bursts of air vibration below his fee to propel him almost the whole way down the street. He hissed as he landed hard on his heels, stumbling forward slightly before picking himself up again. May had made him practice that move two whole times back at the Playground, and he had hated it each time. But now Jemma was potentially in danger, and if saving her meant being forced to use his powers, so be it. 

He did the same move at the end of that street, vaulting him far enough ahead that he saw Skye’s boots disappear around the corner of the street that lead to the SUV. Breaking into a sprint, Fitz rounded the corner just in time to hear Jemma scream from where she stood at the end of the alley, the Inhuman approaching her at full speed. Before Fitz could process what was happening, he saw the Inhuman’s head snap backwards at the end of the alleyway, and the man collapsed onto the cobblestones.

As Skye skidded to a stop by the unconscious Inhuman, reaching out to snap power-inhibiting manacles onto his wrists, Jemma’s stance shifted from one of evidently feigned fear to smug satisfaction.

“Never underestimate the science division,” she quipped as Fitz jogged towards her, and then she reached out to take hold of something invisible at the border of the alleyway. A metal beam materialized between them at head-height, stretched between the two walls and anchored with spikes into the brick.

“Looks like those work nicely,” he said, helping to support it as she pressed the button to retract the spikes and collapse the beam to the size of a small wheel. They were a prototype Fitz had been working on recently, to help field agents do things such as barricade buildings or prop up damaged ones. Knocking out unsuspecting potential attackers had not been on his list of potential applications, but, as ever, Jemma’s quick mind had beat them all to the punch. 

“Oh, they’re quite excellent,” she said, straightening and turning around to look for Davis, who was jogging back towards them from the opposite side of the street. 

Fitz glared at the other agent. “You left her here _alone_?” 

Glancing briefly from Jemma to Fitz, Davis gave him an uneasy shrug. “Agent Simmons gave me an order.” 

“And I still outrank you, so he followed mine.” She gave Fitz a quick grin, and then gestured for the other agent to help Skye.

“You _barely_ outrank me,” Fitz groused, crossing his arms. “And the only reason I left was ‘cause I thought you’d have someone watching you.”

Jemma rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a babysitter, Fitz, you should know that by now.” He made an indistinct grumble, and she sighed, reaching out to wrap her hands around one of his biceps. “I’m fine,” she murmured, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

“Well,” said Skye, hopping over from where she’d just been muttering instructions for the rest of the field team into her mic, “not a perfect op, but not too shabby, either.” 

“How was the other Inhuman?” Jemma asked, keeping one hand on Fitz and rubbing her thumb soothingly against his arm. The gesture was, perhaps, a bit silly, but it genuinely helped to calm him down, and he suspected she knew that. If Skye noticed Jemma’s atypical public tactility, she didn’t say anything.

“Came in voluntarily, soon as I said who we were.” Skye blew out a puff of air, sending half of her bangs to one side. “She’s pregnant, scared to death that she’ll hurt her kid. I think he’s her husband.” 

“Oh dear, pregnant,” Jemma said quietly. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a pregnant patient before. What are her abilities?”

Skye just shook her head. “No habla Romanian, chica.”

“That’s Spanish,” Fitz couldn’t help but interject, and Skye let out an annoyed huff.

“No shit, Sherlock,” she retorted. “Anyway, it was a miracle she could understand us at all, I think. She was wearing sunglasses inside, so I figure it’s something to do with her eyes, or sight.” 

The three of them watched as a group of agents prepared a stretcher for the unconscious and manacled Inhuman. “He may not have been running, you know,” Jemma pointed out. “He may have been trying to save his wife.” 

“It’s cute that you look for the best in people,” Skye said, giving her friend a warm smile despite the teasing lilt to her voice.

Jemma just tutted, finally removing her hand from Fitz’s arm, to his slight disappointment. “I take it Mack is alright?”

“Yeah, though he has a nasty cut on his leg, thanks to _someone_ ’s rash decision-making,” Fitz said darkly.

“It wasn’t rash!” Skye exclaimed, and Jemma looked from one to the other.

“What happened?”

“Skye,” Fitz said, ignoring her little sound of annoyance, “made me _bowl_ her through the wall to get to Mack and the Inhuman.”

“What?!” 

“I didn’t _make_ you do anything, you agreed –”

“She could have fractured her spine!” Jemma’s voice was just shy of shrill, halting Skye mid-sentence. They all had to shift over to the side of the cross street that contained the SUV, making way for the gathering of SHIELD agents to wheel their patient in the direction of the containment pod. 

“That’s what I said,” Fitz grumped, and Skye planted her arms on her hips.

“To be fair,” she retorted. “You didn’t once mention my spine.” 

Fitz stared incredulously at her. “I thought that was implied when I pointed out you didn’t have a helmet!”

“But helmets don’t prevent spinal injuries, and can make them worse in some cases.” Skye gave him a smug eyebrow raise, and Fitz rounded on Jemma, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at their friend as he spoke.

“Would anyone notice if I killed her?” 

Jemma laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “You’d have to explain yourself to Trip once he gets back from being undercover, and Coulson. But May would find you before you even had a chance, anyway.”

Fitz hunched his shoulders, scowling as Skye tossed him a shit-eating grin before trotting after the group of agents with the Inhuman. 

“Don’t be so grumpy,” Jemma admonished him, waving him after her towards the SUV. Davis and another agent were already inside, preparing to drive the four of them to the rendezvous point with the rest of the cars.

“I just keep forgetting she’s indestructible,” he muttered as he trailed after her, and Jemma stopped to glance back at him. “I mean, not forgetting – but she doesn’t _feel_ unbreakable to me. I can tell that she’s made differently than you are, or Davis, or anyone else. But it’s not....” Fitz trailed off, unsure how to describe what he was thinking in words. Although occasionally his hypoxia still reared its aggravating head when he was agitated or distracted, this was not the same thing. It was hard to translate the feeling of his Inhuman abilities into words. The more he adjusted to having his powers, the more difficult it was to remember that other people didn’t experience the world in the same way that he did – not anymore. “She doesn’t have a frequency like cement, or – or diamonds! Y’know, that is _really_ indestructible. And Skye isn’t like that. So I’m just –” 

“Worried about the day we find out her breaking point,” Jemma finished for him, and he nodded, grateful that she understood. “Have you told her that?” Furrowing his brows, Fitz shook his head. “You should – it’s a good observation.” She gave him a warm smile as she pulled open the SUV door. “After you.” 

As Fitz clambered into the car, trying unsuccessfully to avoid tripping over his own equipment, he felt a familiar hand smack sharply against his bum. He let out a loud squawk and half-tumbled into his seat on the other side of the SUV. 

“Everything okay?” Davis and the other agent were staring into the second row of the car, watching as Fitz turned properly around, face burning in embarrassment.

“Silly Fitz,” Jemma said, sliding gracefully into her seat and closing the door behind her. “Tripped over his own equipment.”

All Fitz could do was grumble in vague agreement, which was fortunately enough to make the other two turn around and start the engine. As he turned to glare at Jemma, she gave him an unabashed smirk in response.

“Turn about’s fair play, Agent Fitz,” she whispered, hands settling primly into her lap as the SUV's engine roared to life. 

In retrospect, Fitz thought as the car rumbled over the uneven pavement, he should have expected Jemma’s retaliation, as well as the fact that she had somehow managed to win at even something as ridiculous as an impromptu ass-slapping contest.


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the week at SHIELD was busy, but normally so. Trip returned from his undercover mission, and predictably sided with Fitz on whether or not Skye’s cannon-ball maneuver was ill-conceived. The two Inhumans settled into the base, and Mack’s small injury was well on its way to healing after only a handful of stitches. Occupied with debriefing after the mission and their respective duties in the science division, Fitz and Jemma hardly spent any time together outside of a professional setting – or while sleeping – until the following weekend.

By the time Fitz returned to their shared living space that Friday night, he found Jemma already changed into her pajamas, having completed her work earlier in the evening. Something had been niggling at the back of his mind all day, but he wasn’t entirely sure how to bring it up. It wasn’t something negative by any means, yet he found himself stymied as to how to introduce the subject without it sounding awkward.

They both went about their evening routines, chit-chatting about the day as they went – and while Fitz mulled how to bring up his idea. As he returned from the restroom, in the midst of unbuttoning his shirt, Jemma leaned against their dresser, clearly waiting for him. The mischievous tilt to her smile was a familiar one to him by now, and he stepped automatically into her space, where she stretched up onto her tiptoes to capture his mouth in a languid kiss. Humming, Fitz backed her up against the wooden drawers, the picture frames on top rattling slightly, and she curled her fingers into the belt loops of his work trousers. Her tongue slicked over his, along his bottom lip, and an eager shiver ran through him.

Within his chest, his powers buzzed hopefully, and he suppressed a wry chuckle against her mouth. When he had been learning about his new Inhuman abilities lo those many months ago, he’d come to the understanding that as much as they were a part of him, they were also a little bit like their own being. They had moods and responded to stimuli just like he did, and the more he recognized that and behaved accordingly, the more in sync he and his powers became. As such, his powers also did not like being neglected. Since he did not often use them at the workplace, having chosen to stay with the science division, it just so happened that one of the few places where his abilities got use was in the bedroom. To feel them seemingly await such activity was undeniably amusing. 

After a few more moments of kissing, however, he realized that Jemma was not quite as invested in the activity as she should be, despite her having initiated it. Her movements a hair behind his, he could tell that her mind had drifted off.

“I’m glad I’m holding your attention,” he teased, brushing their noses together so that she knew he wasn’t actually upset. 

She groaned, leaning back against the dresser and rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said, nose wrinkling in clear annoyance. “I’ve been thinking about having you to myself all evening, and now that I have, I can’t stop thinking about –” Jemma stopped herself, cutting her eyes up to his before dropping them again. “Something else.” 

Raising an eyebrow, Fitz rested one hand on the dresser, giving himself a moment to put a pin in his libido’s healthy interest in the first part of her sentence. “Do you wanna talk about the something else...?” 

“No.” Jemma stared hard in the general vicinity of his collarbone, then whined nearly comically and dropped her forehead against his shoulder. “But Andrew said I should.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, smoothing his other hand along her arm in a way he hoped was soothing, “your monthly was this morning. Did it – I mean, how’d it go?”

“Fine,” she answered on a sigh, straightening back up, “ _well_ , even, but he gave me homework that I’d... honestly sort of been hoping to put off.” She cringed, curling her hands into the open edges of Fitz's maroon shirt.

“Jemma Simmons,” he pretended to gasp, and she was smiling even before he got out another word. “Putting off homework?! I don’t believe it, it’d never happen –”

“Oh, shush –” She tried waving him off, slipping out from between him and the dresser, but he just followed as she made her way to their bed.

“If we were still at the Academy,” he said, voice becoming more thoughtful as he dropped next to her on the mattress, “I think I might’ve checked your temperature if you’d ever said something like that.”

“ _Please_ ,” she retorted, “with what, exactly? Even if your mum had managed to pack you away with a thermometer somewhere, you wouldn’t have been able to find it under the mountains of clothes.”

Fitz let out an affronted noise. “They weren’t mountains – they were molehills at best. Really more like topographic detailing.” 

A grin teased at the corner of her mouth. “Topographic detailing. Is that how you used to describe it to your mum?”

“Maybe.” He grinned, reaching over Jemma’s pajama-clad knee to clasp her hand. “Sometimes I was able to get away with things by using science jargon, but that one didn’t go over too well.” 

“Made you clean it up anyway?” 

“And scrub the kitchen for my cheek.” Taking advantage of the brief lull, he gave her hand a brief squeeze of affection. “D’you maybe wanna get your homework out of the way anyway, though?”

She sighed, giving her nose a brief wrinkle of apprehension. “Then I can have my way with you as I please?”

Clearing his throat, Fitz nodded. “I was actually – there was – I had a – was thinking – but it doesn’t – we can talk about it – doesn’t matter.” His cheeks were distinctly warm by the time he clamped his mouth shut, and Jemma was giving him an intrigued smile that prompted him to shift side-to-side on the bed. 

“We will definitely come back to whatever that was later,” Jemma murmured, voice low and laden with unspoken promises that made his trousers feel a hair too tight.

“So,” Fitz said, having to clear his throat one more time as he moved so he was facing her more directly, “your homework...? Does it involve me, or...?”

Jemma sighed, and took his other hand into hers as well. “Yes. It’s just – something has been bothering me since the mission last week, in Bucharest.”

As she spoke, he studied the way her position reverted to one that was unfortunately familiar to him by now: Brows furrowed, eyes dropped, and hands fidgeting, although at the moment the latter were wrapped comfortingly in his. Prevented from her normal fidgeting, she was rubbing her thumbs over his skin. Even though her sessions with Andrew seemed to be helping, she was still very much uncomfortable with talking about her feelings.

“And I haven’t wanted to bring it up because I think you’ll be hurt, even though, really, it’s not – it’s not how it sounds.” Fitz wanted to push back with questions, but as she had learned to give him space to come up with the right words, so now he gave her the same chance. She inhaled. “You read the transcript of Viktor’s interview with Skye, right?” 

Fitz nodded. The Romanian Inhumans they had helped to bring in to SHIELD were settling into their assigned quarters as well as could be expected. Previous tenants had been far more combative, at least, although the husband clearly wished to be anywhere else. Fortunately, his wife seemed happy enough to be able to talk to others with powers, and so, for the time being, they were staying.

“I keep thinking about what Viktor told Skye during his initial interview,” Jemma continued, struggling a bit to maintain eye contact. “That he’d trapped the two of them in there to protect Maria and their baby, and I just... keep thinking... I mean, it’s ridiculous, of course, but... I just keep thinking of us. Of you doing something extreme to protect me.” 

As she had predicted, Fitz felt rather like she’d just slapped him across the face. He stared incredulously at her while he tried to remember how nervous she had been to have this conversation to begin with.

“You want to know,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady, “if I’d trap you in a tiny, miserable prison to keep you safe?”

“No, don’t be ludicrous,” she retorted immediately, although that didn’t stop his stomach from curdling at the direction the conversation had taken. “It just... reminded me a bit of you. A _bit_ , Fitz, don’t give me that look. The way Skye said you were talking while I was trapped on the other side of the monolith.” Jemma studied his face, sighing when he didn’t speak. 

In truth, Fitz had no idea how to respond. He didn’t like the idea that the love of his life thought he could ever be remotely capable of locking her away somewhere. 

“See, this is why I didn’t want to bring it up,” she said, scooting even closer to him. “I _knew_ you would take it poorly.”

“Christ, Jemma!” he replied, only prevented from throwing his hands out to the side by the fact that she was still holding tightly to them. “Can you blame me? That’s not – I don’t want you to think about me that way. That you could ever –”

“I don’t think you would ever do that to me.” Jemma moved so she could meet his gaze head-on. “I don’t, Fitz, did I ever say that you would? It’s just....” She exhaled again, and when she spoke, it was much quieter than she had been before. “You nearly got yourself killed to save me. Twice. I suppose this doesn’t seem that different.”

For a few moments, Fitz let her words sink in, trying his best to see the connection that she did. But eventually he just gave his head a weary shake and looked back up at her. “I’m sorry, Jemma, but I just – I don’t understand the, um, connection. Between us and them.”

She wrinkled her nose and tightened her fingers around his. “There isn’t one, not really. But it’s... been bothering me all week.” The air system switched on in their ceiling’s noisy vents, halting her briefly. “I still dream about that day. With the Kree stone,” she whispered, eyes darting away from his again. “That I dig you out of the rubble and... it’s too late. Or I’m digging and I can’t find you. I can’t find you anywhere.” Her face twisted, eyes abruptly brimming with tears, and in a second Fitz was pulling her into his arms, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, holding her tightly until she let out a slow breath. “I can’t forget it, any of it, and it’s not like it was before. Not like with Ward, and the med pod. I don’t have someone to blame, to focus on. This was _you_ – you did that to yourself to get me out.”

“Would threatening to kill me help?”

“That’s not funny,” she muttered, although since she did so on a half-laugh he was fairly certain she wasn’t annoyed. After another second of letting him hold her, she disentangled herself from his arms so she could meet his gaze again. “When we do things like that mission, it just brings it all back. Not every mission, not all the time, but it did with this one. And I just....” She took a deep breath, and looked back up at him. “I want to make sure you remember your promise. If something goes wrong and you have to make a choice, that you’d think about what I would want. That we’re in this _together_ – it’s not just about you saving me. It’s about keeping you safe, too.” With a half-smile, she reached over to cup his cheek, rubbing her thumb over his stubble. “When you’re safe, I’m safe. Okay?”

“Yeah,” he responded quietly, tilting his head to kiss her palm and then take it in his hand. Her words struck a chord deep inside him, and he had to pause, trying to absorb the idea that she considered their respective safety as one and the same. There was probably something troubling in the fact that he had trouble conceiving of himself being as worthy for saving as she seemed to deem him. Perhaps he’d bring that up with Andrew next month. “Of course I remember my promise. Just hoping I won’t need to keep it, if y’know what I mean.”

Jemma let out a wry little chuckle. “Right, yes. Me, too.” Leaning forward, she gave him a soft kiss, pressing their foreheads together once she broke away. “Thank you for listening. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Jemma. And you don’t need to thank me for that,” he said, dropping his gaze between them. “I _like_ listening to you. It helps me to, um –” Fitz paused, waving one finger in a small circle by his temple. “To process. I just... didn’t know you were still dreaming about that. The monolith. You never told me.”

Although his physical recovery from that particular adventure had been long, rescuing Jemma from the clutches of the monolith had ultimately not manifested in his subconscious in any lasting way. Certainly not when compared to the pod or his transformation, both of which still made regular appearances in his dreams or during odd moments of either reflection or anxiety.

“I’ve told you about my nightmares,” she said slowly, picking at the collar of her pajama shirt. The image struck him as being very much like she used to look back at the Academy during late nights of confession and young prodigy bonding; impeccable clothing, avoiding eye contact, and refusing to admit any sort of weakness. He was grateful that she was willing to open up to him now about things like this far more than she used to be. 

“You weren’t big on specifics,” he countered, and she gave him a little eyeroll that meant she knew he was right. 

“For a long time,” she continued at last, “all of my nightmares have been about losing you. I mean, not directly – you know how dreams are, sometimes it’s about losing my favorite sweater in the lab and it feels like the most horrifying thing that’s ever happened to me. I think I – I’m sure I told you that, basically.”

He wobbled his head back-and-forth slightly, but gave her a small smile. “Sort of. I’m glad you told me a bit more about it, though. The details.” 

Nodding, she let out a slow breath. “I wish I didn’t still think about it. I mean, we sleep together every night. I know you’re safe, and happy – well, I – I hope you’re happy....” 

“Jemma,” he said, tone as serious as he could make it, drawing her eyes back to his. “I’ve never been happier in my whole life. Even when we were at the Academy, or on the Bus – never.” A blindingly bright smile flashed across her face, but he continued, determined to make her understand what their life together meant to him. “Being with you makes me feel this sort of – [this peace](http://agentverbivore.tumblr.com/post/146030809318/what-jemma-simmons-means-to-leopold-fitz-peace) that I didn’t used to know I was missing. Like, we’re together, and I know I can look forward to seeing you at work or at the end of the day, and you want to see me, too, and everything’s... calm.” Fitz gave her a wry smile and gestured at his chest. “Like before I went through terrigenesis. But my whole life’s like that now. I mean, being with you is exciting and interesting and sexy and all of those other things, but it just feels... right. Like the rest of my life finally fell into place.”

Her eyes widened at the last, and Fitz had to fight his instinctive urge to qualify his rambled statement. Instead, he gave her a barely perceptible nod. He had meant it when he said the rest of his life – and one day, perhaps not too far in the future, he’d ask her if she might like to spend a whole lifetime together. 

With a slight wobble of her bottom lip, Jemma leaned in to capture his lips with hers, stretching forward and framing his face with her hands. The kiss was deep and careful, and reminded Fitz of some of their earliest ones, back when she was still trying to convince him that _he_ was exactly what she wanted. At last, she broke away just enough to nuzzle against his nose and stare determinedly back at him.

“I feel the same way,” she whispered. 

Fitz’s breath caught at the seriousness that hovered within her honey-brown eyes, at the dim remembrance of her saying something very similar or nearly the same when they had been trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Before he could think of how to respond, she was kissing him again, pushing him back onto the mattress and stretching out over him. His hands came up to smooth along her back, holding her so that she was pressed against him, breasts flat against his chest and hips flush to his.

“Did you realize,” she murmured, feathering her lips up his jaw until she could nibble gently at his earlobe, “that we haven’t had sex since last week?”

With Jemma suckling tantalizingly at the sensitive skin just below his ear, it took him a few seconds to process her question. “Uh, no?”

“Well, _I_ did. And since I’ve completed my homework, I would like to have my way with you now.” 

Fitz swallowed, watching a teasing siren smile stretch across her flushed lips. “A deal’s a deal,” he croaked.

Letting out a small “oh,” Jemma pushed up on her hands so she could regard him from a distance. “You were going to say something, earlier. You were all adorably shy about it.” 

“I wasn’t shy,” he spluttered, leaning up on his elbows so they were a little more evenly matched. “I just – I had an idea, and I thought... but maybe not tonight, we can always –”

“Fitz,” she said, stopping his mumbling by resting one hand over his heart. “Please tell me.”

He winced and then sat up properly, prompting Jemma to move off of his lap, much to his regret. If he was going to have to actually _talk_ before they could _do_ , he would much rather she were in his arms. “Do you rememb– no, sorry, you’d remember. When we were at the cabin, and I, uhm, walked in on you when you were...” he trailed off, hoping she would fill in the rest. Unfortunately for him, she just arched a challenging eyebrow, and he let out a small groan. “You were getting yourself off. And I interrupted.”

“Yes,” she replied drily, “I do remember being interrupted. You made up for it twice over the next day, though.” Her smile then was a cross between sultry and fond, and he rubbed the back of his neck to distract himself from the heat in his cheeks.

“I, erm, yeah, right. So I was... I’ve been thinking... Christ, pretty much ever since that night, if I’m being honest. But we've been busy, so I just remembered... I’ve wondered... if you’d let me watch. You getting yourself off. Just like, ah, that night.”

Her eyes lit up in interest, pupils dilating just enough to hide the golden flecks in her irises. “Oh _really_ ,” she murmured, studying his face, and he suddenly felt a bit like a chemistry test that she knew she was about to dominate. “How fascinating.” 

“We don’t have to now,” he said quickly, “we can do it another night, I’d sorta like to be inside you –”

“We can do it tonight,” she interrupted, hopping up to dim the overhead light. “I’m quite certain we can find time for both.”

“You overestimate how long I’m gonna last watching you do that,” he muttered, shifting around so he was on his knees on the mattress, angling for a better view as she scooted into the center of their queen-sized bed. 

“I had my pajamas on that night, I’m sure,” she said, and his eyes followed as her fingers drifted to the buttons of her sky-blue pajama shirt. “But I gather you –”

“Naked,” he interrupted, feeling his face flush as she watched him. “Um, please.”

Jemma didn’t respond to that, instead slowly unbuttoning the shirt and letting the two sides part. A low breath slipped out of his mouth as the shirt fluttered to the bed behind her, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as he stared unabashedly at his girlfriend’s breasts. By now, she knew exactly the power they held over him, and he was already wishing that he had more of a role in the activity he’d chosen for their evening together. Although they hadn’t set any particular rules – or talked much about what this would entail other than generally – in the back of his head it felt like he shouldn’t be involved. That it should really be her room to command. Her breasts bounced slightly as she flung the shirt over the side of the bed, nipples dusky pink and half-pebbled from being exposed to the air, and he had to dig his fingernails into his palm to keep himself from reaching for her.

With another couple of quick maneuvers, Jemma lay naked on her back in front of Fitz, her eyes just as fixed on him as he was riveted by her. Still not speaking, she bent her knees up and out, exposing the pink flesh between her thighs. Fitz’s breath was coming fast now, heaving out of his chest as he tried to decide what to focus on – her breasts, the full length of her body, her hand, her eyes.... She slid one hand down from her naval to cup over her sex, shielding herself from his view, and he darted his eyes up to give her a questioning look.

“Is this what you wanted, Fitz?”

“Yeah,” he could barely get out fast enough, shifting on his knees. “Christ, yeah, this is – amazing. Keep going. Please.”

Jemma flicked her eyes down to his lap. “Turn about’s fair play, Fitz. Show me how much you want this.” Brows furrowing, he stared back at her without quite understanding what she meant. “If I’m going to be naked, so will you.” 

“ _Oh_ ,” he muttered, and then hopped off the bed to rapidly strip away all his clothes as quickly as possible. “Right, yeah, sorry.”

Without hesitating once he was unclothed, he returned to the position he’d been in before, kneeling a couple feet away from her on the mattress. His erect cock bobbed slightly as he got into place, and she dropped her gaze to it with a satisfied smirk. Normally, Fitz would be uncomfortable being quite so plainly exposed without having something physical to do, but he was too focused on watching Jemma right now to care a whit about himself. Beyond resisting the urge to take himself in hand and work himself towards the brink shamefully fast, anyway.

“Much better,” she murmured, and at that slipped two fingers down and pushed them inside herself. Fitz couldn’t help the longing groan that stuttered from him, his hands flexing against his thighs. Christ, he wished her hand was his hand – or that her hand was his mouth. Anything to touch her.

Jemma hummed, hips rotating slightly, and then dragged those two fingers up her slick tract of skin, pink shining wetly in the dim light. When she circled the distinctive nub of her clit, she drew in a sharp breath, breasts heaving as the feeling washed through her. Fitz found himself leaning forward, as if there was something he was going to have to run to, and swallowed as he tried to calm himself down. This was just the beginning. 

“So this is what you do,” he said hoarsely, “to get yourself off.”

She slid her forefingers over her clit again and let out a sigh just touched by a whimper. “Not exactly,” she breathed, dipping her fingers down into her entrance again before rubbing them back up towards her clit in tight, concentric circles, her hips gyrating in time. “I used to have to wind myself up a bit first. Pretend you were kissing me, or that I had your hands all over me.” 

“Where?” Fitz licked his lips as he watched hers drop open, her fingers working in quick circles over her center and causing her to release little bitten-off noises of pleasure.

Letting out a small moan, Jemma dropped her hand to again push two fingers inside herself, but this time she stroked them in and out repeatedly, reminding him of exactly where he wished his desperately hard cock was at that second. She hummed in satisfaction, her hips undulating so that she was working herself smoothly against her own hand. Fitz found himself grunting in a sort of eager frustration, curling one hand into a fist and banging it against his knee to stay some of his now painfully tense arousal.

“Everywhere,” she answered at last, eyes fluttering open again to meet his. “My breasts, my hips, my lips, God, my arse, my waist. I couldn’t decide where, I wanted you so badly.”

“Did you? Tell me.” He rubbed both hands again down and up his own thighs, just barely resisting grabbing his cock and frantically wanking until he came on the sheets in between them. “Tell me what you were thinking about, Jemma.” 

“Your eyes.” His fog of arousal cleared slightly in surprise, and for the first time in a while he blinked up to meet her gaze. “The way you looked at me in your bedroom, after our first kiss....” Jemma shivered, slicking her fingers briefly up over her clit before dipping them back inside herself. “You’d never looked at me like that before. All... all hot, and like you wanted me.” 

“I did,” he said roughly, scooting forward a couple inches. “Christ, I wanted you _so_ much –”

“And then your _voice_.” She moaned, tilting her head back into the pillow as she stroked her fingers faster against her sensitive skin. “ _God_ , I’d never felt like that before, just hearing something... hearing my name....”

For a few seconds, Fitz almost convinced himself that now would be the perfect time to scoop his girlfriend into his arms so they could fuck until he actually passed out. Then the logical part of his brain tapped in, reminding him that he’d been fantasizing about watching her do this for months, and he inhaled slowly. Trying to alleviate his desperate need to touch her, he shuffled forward another few inches, just enough to allow him to wrap his hands around her ankles. Jemma blinked her eyes open to watch him, her breasts heaving as she panted. Gently, he tugged her legs forward, keeping her spread wide but allowing him to curl his hands beneath her knees. The intention was just to give him a point of contact, allow him to feel the heat of desire as it thrummed through her body, but when his fingers brushed against the skin along the underneath of her knees she let out a soft, shivery whimper. Intrigued, he did it again, and watched her bite hard onto her bottom lip in response. It seemed that he’d found a new erogenous zone, and filed that away for future use.

“Go on,” he rumbled, prompting her to meet his gaze again. “What were you saying?”

Jemma stared at him, lost briefly in her own lust-induced haze as she rhythmically slicked her fingers in and out of herself. “Oh,” she said unevenly, and swallowed. “When you said my name. And I wasn’t... well, that’s... um.” Giving her head a brief shake, she tried a different track. “And I thought about what it would’ve been like if I’d dropped my robe, or you....” She trailed off, the sinuous movement of her fingers in concert with her hips slowing.

Frowning, Fitz saw the arousal fading from her face. “Jemma?” 

“I’m fine,” she said quickly, which told him immediately that she was not. “I was just, um, trying to remember....” 

“Jemma,” he repeated, giving her calves a pointed but affectionate squeeze. “Something happened. In your head. I can tell.”

For a few seconds, she kept her hand held at the apex of her trembling thighs, as if she was having trouble deciding what to do. Then, with a frustrated groan, she let her legs drop together to the bed and removed her right hand, throwing her left hand up to cover her face. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. 

“Hey, no,” Fitz began immediately, “you shouldn’t ap–” 

“I know,” she said, interrupting him. “I know. I just – I was trying to remember how I felt that night, and then I thought about how unsure I was back then, about your feelings, that I was afraid of taking advantage of you, that I didn’t want to move too fast, and how guilty I felt, because....” Jemma paused, and then took a few seconds to sit properly up so they were face to face. “Because you were there because of me, in a way,” she continued quietly, one arm half-crossing her chest in a gesture that struck him as an attempt to hide her nudity and, therefore, her vulnerability. “Because you were going through something so difficult, more than one thing, and there I was, only thinking about the hottest ways we could fuck. And I just really wanted nothing else but to help you, for us to be friends again. But I wanted so much more than that, too.” She gave her head a sad little shake. “I don’t even know if I would’ve been able to finish that night if you hadn’t interrupted me, anyway. Could’ve been a fool’s errand for all I know.”

Feeling somewhat guilty that his attempt at dirty talk had sent her down that melancholic train of thought, Fitz regarded her for a few seconds. “C’mon,” he said at last, reaching out to encourage her to move towards him. “C’mere.”

A warm smile spread across her face once she realized what he wanted, and she willingly moved forward so she was straddling his lap. His rigid cock still stood up between them, but, fortunately for them both, Jemma just moved in without paying it much attention. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and let out a sigh as he curled his arms around her waist, hugging her against him. Once she was settled, Fitz nuzzled up to press his mouth against hers, slowly brushing their lips together until he could feel the tension leeching out of her muscles. This was not new to him; occasionally, over the past few months of their relationship on the base, one or the other of them would get thrown out of the right headspace during sex and need to either stop or slow down. 

“Was it really that bad, that night?” he asked eventually, gratified by the way Jemma had relaxed into his hold. “I mean, we’d... we’d talked about it. We said we were gonna give us a go. You can’t have been _that_ unsure of how I still felt.” He paused, and reached up to smooth one hand against her cheek. “You know I don’t blame you for _anything_ that happened last year.”

“I know,” she whispered, lowering her gaze. “I know you don’t. And I – I just wasn’t sure. I was hopeful, but it had only been a couple of hours. You could have changed your mind, or... or something. And that feeling... that guilt... I don’t really know when it went away. Until the first morning we woke up together, maybe – or at Afterlife. I’m not sure.” She exhaled. “Maybe it still hasn’t.”

He nodded and rested their foreheads together, closing his eyes, trying to concentrate on lowering his heart rate and calming down enough so that he wasn’t fixated only on sex. Her fingers carded up through his hair and down again over his neck, and he rubbed their noses together again. “D’you want to stop?” 

“Yeah,” she answered reluctantly. “Oh, I mean – that. What you asked me to do... I’m sorry, I just don’t think I can... finish that way now.”

“Jemma,” he said in admonishment, spreading his fingers out against the dip of her spine. “You don’t need to apologize for not wanting to do something. Especially not in bed. And, Christ, that was....” Fitz let out a low huff. “I could happily wank over that alone for years. You’re bloody magnificent.”

She laughed a little, eyes shining as she studied his expression. “I’d really like to make love, though,” she continued quietly. “If you’re still in the mood.”

Fitz let out a wry chuckle, and shifted one of her arms down so he could entwine their fingers and then wrap her hand around his very hard cock. Her eyebrows raised slightly, and she gave the base of his shaft a squeeze.

“You could say I’m still in the mood,” he muttered, eyelids almost fluttering shut as she moved their joined hands in a slow pump. “I’d like that, too. A lot.” 

“Brilliant.” Rather than move in that direction, though, Jemma began to feather her lips over his cheek, up his nose to his forehead. In her way, she seemed to be thanking him for going along with the change of plans, even if they both knew that he neither wanted nor required thanks of any kind. Her lower abdomen rubbed briefly against his cock, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

“Are you ready?” he asked hoarsely, and she nodded. He slid his hands down to cup her ass and pull her in flush against him. As she reached down to angle his cock properly toward her entrance, Fitz’s gaze roamed over her face, distracted from his arousal by the fervency of his love for his best friend. Every day that they had been together, he was unspeakably grateful for them having found each other. Keeping his eyes open, he nuzzled up for another kiss, transfixed by the depth of her irises, by their shimmering brown, by the steadiness of her affection as she finally sunk down onto him.

A stuttered groan slipped from his mouth as her slick heat enveloped him, and he was struck yet again by how sharp the sensation of being inside her was without a condom. Her passage was so tight and smooth, the friction between them beyond anything he’d ever felt before she’d gotten her IUD. He drew her firmly down against him, grunting as their hips met and he reveled in being completely inside her. Wriggling slightly in pleasure as his cock filled her, Jemma let out an eager little whimper and dug her fingernails into his shoulders.

“Better?” he panted in a low voice, and she made a sharp noise of assent.

“ _God_ yes,” Jemma moaned, rotating her hips as if to work Fitz even deeper inside.

“God bless whoever invented the IUD,” he mumbled, and she let out a loud, breathy laugh.

Waiting for her to move, he let his eyes wander down to where they were pressed together, her breasts flat against his chest and her curves slightly shadowed but somehow still the more erotic. He could see the freckles and moles he’d catalogued during night upon night before, he could feel her muscles pulled tight in arousal, he could almost feel her heart beating in time with his. At last, she rocked her hips back and in one smooth stroke took him inside her again, causing them both to moan at the unfettered pleasure of such intimate friction. 

Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he glanced over her shoulder. The door to their closet was open, from when he’d gotten distracted in the midst of disrobing, and with a shock of lust he realized he could actually partially see the two of them in the full-length door-mounted mirror within. The hourglass of Jemma’s bum rose over his lap, revealing the flushed length of his cock before thrusting it deep inside herself again and again, and Fitz let out a strangled moan, pressing his face against her temple to slow the encroaching race to his own climax.

“What?” She caught the direction of his gaze over her shoulder and twisted around, eyes lighting up as she, too, caught sight of the mirror. “Oh,” Jemma murmured, rearranging her hold on his shoulders so she could watch herself stroke his cock inside a few times. “That is... that’s rather good.” Fitz could only groan in response, his eyes fixated on the sight of them entwined so erotically in the mirror, on her watching herself ride him.

When she turned back to face him, he was nearly undone by the mischievous smile that teased at her lips. “What?”

“I have an idea.” She reached down to wrap his hands firmly around her waist, and then leaned backwards, lying across on his knees and the mattress, and grabbing a pillow for her head.

Somewhat frozen now by both surprise and lust, Fitz held onto her waist as she’d indicated, keeping him buried deeply inside her despite the position change. And what a change it was, with Jemma now stretched out in front of him, her naked body in full view as she writhed on his cock. Then, just to make it even more difficult for him to hold out, she slipped her right hand down to begin stroking her clit. He could see her slim fingers working against the distinctive nub, just above where his cock filled her tight, hot passage. Letting out a strangled, somewhat pained noise of arousal, he dug his fingers into her waist.

“Jemma, what’re – _Christ_ , what’re you doing?”

“Getting myself off,” she breathed, clearly aiming for a matter-of-fact tone but sounding distinctly overwhelmed by sensation. “Just like you asked.”

Fitz let out a low whine, breath hitching as she ground her hips firmly against his and kept him from actually moving. To his horror, a distinct shiver swept through the bricks of their bedroom like a wave.

“Fuck,” he bit out, giving his head a brief shake before meeting Jemma’s now-alarmed gaze. “Sorry, I haven’t done that in –”

“Months,” she completed for him, hands stilled. “Were you –”

“Trying not to come,” he mumbled, forestalling another question from her with a quick shush and closing his eyes. “Just gimme a sec.” For a few moments, Fitz withdrew into himself, centering both his powers and his potent arousal. His abilities, ironically, were actually easier to bring under his control, and it was a bit longer than he would have expected before he could meet his girlfriend’s gaze with a wry smile. “You caught me off guard. Christ Jemma, please don’t stop.”

She studied his expression, clearly looking for any further sense of uncertainty, and then crooked an eyebrow. “As you wish,” she murmured, and then returned to getting herself off with Fitz’s cock sheathed inside her.

His eyes darted across her whole body, unable to decide what he wanted to focus on: Her nimble, quickening finger strokes, the join of their most intimate parts, her nude body stretched before him, her breasts trembling as her breathing became more and more ragged, the deep golden-brown of her eyes as she watched him right back. He could feel her walls tightening rhythmically around his cock, using him to augment the pleasure of her fingers’ stimulation. The way her legs were bent around his bum kept him from moving, keeping him held inside as she continued to grind her hips against his in sharp half-circles. 

Needing to do something, anything at all, Fitz reached up so that he could slide his hand down from her breastbone to her naval, feeling the taught and trembling edge to her muscles. Jemma was getting close, her hips beginning to twitch against him without rhythm, instinctively seeking more and more pleasure as she sped up her fingers. With a sharp, nearly strangled cry, her orgasm broke over her, fingers circling rapidly and inner walls fluttering as she became even slicker.

Fitz let out a low grunt as he felt her body begin to slacken, and he squeezed her left hip to get her attention. “Jemma, can I?”

“Go,” she said on a moan, head lolling slightly before she met his eyes again. “Any way you –”

But he was already moving before she finished speaking, digging his fingers into her waist to hold her steady as he began to thrust forward hard and fast. There wasn’t much finesse to his strokes now, his whole mind consumed by the feeling of the aftershocks tightening her around him and by the sight of his cock sinking repeatedly into her, his shaft now visibly slick with her come. She moaned Fitz’s name, the word reverberating with the rhythm of his thrusts, and without warning a white-hot jolt of pleasure flashed through him, his climax full of Jemma’s voice and touch and heart. 

As his orgasm washed through him, he let out a hoarse groan and leaned over her, one fist pressed hard into the mattress. Beneath him, she shivered through her own aftermath, undulating her hips against his as she eked out the last dregs of sensation for them both. Once the last of ebbs of pleasure faded from his limbs, he sagged forward, heart pounding. Reluctantly pulling out, Fitz rearranged their limbs so that he could collapse along her side. They both needed to clean up, but for the moment, he desperately needed to catch his breath – and he wanted to hold her properly, curling one arm around her waist as he nuzzled in against her cheek.

“You are,” he breathed, “the _best_.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she teased, stretching her arms before returning his hug. “I quite liked that position, Fitz, we should do that again.” 

“No arguments from me.” He mumbled this against her neck, unable to muster up the energy to move away to make himself better heard. 

“You like watching me.” Jemma said this with certainty, as if she were observing the results to an experiment, while she smoothed one hand against his arm. “When we’re having sex.”

“Yeah. I mean, is that a surprise?” Fitz didn’t think he’d ever been subtle about that before; it was something he’d realized all the way back at Afterlife.

“I suppose not,” she answered thoughtfully. “I hadn’t realized _quite_ how much until tonight. It’s a good thing to know.” Letting out a neutral hum, he cuddled in closer and slid his left hand up to press between her breasts. Beneath his palm, he could feel her heartbeat slowly normalizing, and a sappy smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. Jemma reached up to rest her hand over his, slipping their fingers together but leaving his hand where it was. “How are your powers?”

“Oh, fine,” he muttered. “I didn’t really lose control, it was more like – like they were frustrated, too,” he finished with a low laugh. “I dunno, it was easy to stop it.” Fitz feathered his lips up her neck to her jaw, turning her head so he could press their mouths together. “They weren’t bad vibrations, I promise.”

Jemma made a little noise of understanding, breaking away only brush their noses together in a brief eskimo kiss. “Were they good vibrations, maybe?” she quipped, and he groaned.

“How long have you been waiting to make that joke?”

“Approximately five months and twenty seven days,” she returned cheerfully, and he shook his head as he leaned in again for more kisses.

“You’re an unbelievable nerd.” He smiled down at her, noting the near-blissful exhaustion now written across her features.

“And you love me for it,” Jemma retorted, and Fitz laughed as he kissed her again.

“I really do,” he answered, and a bright smile stretched across her face. “And I’m never gonna stop.”

“Me neither.” Her nose wrinkled in thought, and he had to kiss her before she spoke again. “Being a nerd, _and_ loving you.” 

“Good,” he breathed, and tried to pour everything he could into the way he kissed, touched, held the woman he loved.

Even though Fitz and Jemma had been dating now for nearly six months, somehow he suspected that their life together would never be boring – with or without a list of dreamed fantasies to run through during their spare hours. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there you go, my dear eclecticmuses! I hope this lives up to your expectations, and that you liked this final interlude. <3
> 
> and that's the end of the Inhuman!Fitz 'verse - again. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing how their relationship progressed after the events of [The Storm Inside](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5039197). :-)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this fun little coda! it was wild getting back into the headspace for this AU - feels like I was writing it a hundred years ago.
> 
> comments are my lifeblood, and subscribe for updates!


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